Teacher Training Is Critical

It’s wonderful that online curricula for financial literacy courses is readily available for free. Growing popularity for financial literacy courses and free curriculum and tools are two ingredients for success. The third is trained high school educators. There is a critical national shortage of these highly trained educators, which will only be exacerbated as more and more states adopt this course as a graduation requirement.

An educator should be required to have certain expertise and training prior to being authorized to teach a personal finance course. Most states have fairly stringent requirements for teaching mathematics, language arts, social studies, and science courses.

We need the same stringent requirements for personal finance teachers. Being self-taught is not optimal for meeting learning goals. Currently, the vast majority of grade A states do not require educators to have demonstrable personal finance expertise prior to being allowed to teach a course.

Thankfully, we have a model. Utah, always a leader in personal finance education, is also a setting the standard in teacher training, with robust requirements for educators.

Educator training is desperately needed to ensure the successful implementation of these new requirements. We estimate that for grade A states the number of students that take a stand-alone financial literacy course each year will increase from 425,000 students in academic year 2022–2023 to 2,800,000 students in 2030–2031. Assuming that each educator can train 100 students in an academic year, we estimate that the need for highly trained educators in personal finance concepts in Grade A states will increase from 4,250 in 2022–2023 to 28,360 in 2030–2031. This number does not include any of the new teachers who will be replacing retiring teachers, or those who leave the profession.

Class of 2023 Number of Grade A States	7 States
Class of 2023 Total Number of Students in Public High Schools in Grade A States (Fall 2022 data*)	1,700,166
Estimated Number of Public High School Students Taking Course in the 2022–2023 Academic Year (Fall 2022 Data*)	425,042
Estimated Number of Trained Educators Required for 2022–2023 Academic Year (assumes each educator trains 100 students each academic year)	4,250

*Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, and National Center for Education Statistics “Digest for Education Statistics, 2023.” Data from Table 203.30 Public school enrollment in grades 9 through 12, using 2022 actual enrollment data. Total enrollment for the US in 2022 was 15,547,146.

Projected Class of 2031 Number of Grade A States	29 States
Class of 2031 Total Number of Students in Public High Schools in Grade A States (Fall 2022 data*)	11,344,338
Estimated Number of Public High School Students Taking Course in the 2030–2031 Academic Year (Fall 2022 Data*)	2,836,085
Estimated Number of Trained Educators Required for 2030–2031 Academic Year (assumes each educator trains 100 students each academic year)	28,361

* Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, and National Center for Education Statistics “Digest for Education Statistics, 2023.” Data from Table 203.30 Public school enrollment in grades 9 through 12, using 2022 actual enrollment data. Total enrollment for the US in 2022 was 15,547,146.

A 2021 FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s Financial  Capability Study indicated that just one in five American adults surveyed who were offered personal finance instruction in K-12 schools, college or the workforce actually took the training. By 2040, three out of four young adults under the age of 25 will likely answer yes to that survey question. How will policy makers ensure that all students in their respective states receive quality financial literacy instruction?

Going forward, citizens will expect public high school teachers that teach personal finance be trained and qualified to teach high school students this subject.

Imagine the reaction of parents if untrained educators were allowed to teach language arts, mathematics, history, civics, or a foreign language. Yet that is often what is happening today in personal finance instruction in our nation’s high schools.

Higher education can play a critical role by creating financial literacy certificate or degree programs.

We should encourage interested teachers to pursue professional development opportunities. Many of these opportunities are online and often free. Since 2011, our Center has offered a free graduate course to hundreds of educators. Our Center has also offered free, online, and on-demand professional development training of this nature in a variety of states, and we hope to expand this program, with state-specific content, across the nation. More higher learning institutions should provide educators with this critically needed training.

Moreover, this training works. This 2021 research shows that teacher training improves students’ learning. Other research shows conclusively that personal finance education in high school is effective in developing financially capable citizens.